China’s ‘Virtue Schools’ for Women and Antifeminism

“Don’t fight back when beaten. Don’t talk back when scolded. And, no matter what, don’t get divorced.” “Women should just stay at the bottom level of the society and not aspire for more.” “Shut your mouth and do more housework.” These sentences all come from female teachers in China’s ‘virtue schools’ for women. These ‘virtue schools’ are for women of all ages, including underage girls. The schools list these words as their principles for women.

On September 21, 2014, China’s female morality schools came to the attention of the public. The schools were set up in Beijing, Shandong, Hebei, Guangdong and Hainan province. The first school was founded in 2011 by an ex-convict who had served time for murder. The school was approved by local authorities as a “public welfare organization”. The first female morality school was forced to close in 2017 after videos of lectures at the institute began doing the rounds on Chinese social media, alerting the authorities.

The Global Times reported that“ instead of promoting gender equality, these schools tell students that a woman should respect her father, husband and son unconditionally and that women should be subordinate to men.” Some women were sent by their husbands, while others were sent by company bosses.

 “As part of the training, I was forced to clean the toilets using my bare hands. How disgusting! They taught me that it was what women were supposed to do, and that women were born to serve men," says Jing in an interview to BBC. Jing was a 13-year-old girl who was forced by her mother to attend the female morality school.

When a 9-year-old girl was beaten in a school by a female teacher, people started to blame and criticize the school’s conduct. But these schools’ faults were not limited to violence to little girls, but also include being pests of social progress, including equal rights for women. It is obvious that these schools are set up to push women into being submissive housewives and impede women from seeking their own destinies.

The news about the morality schools was shocking for the world, especially in an era when women are fighting for their equal rights and standing out in the “MeToo” movement. How could this kind of disgusting development happen in modern China?

Actually, the voices of Antifeminism do not just belong to a small number of individuals. Every day in social media and in the daily lives around us, we see evidence of these forces. Whenever there is a voice in social media supporting equal rights for women, many people express their objections with sarcasm and negativity.

Men mock and laugh on social media and other public forums because they think it is ridiculous for women to ask for equal rights with men. In China, although women have the right to work and other legal rights similar to those of men, women still face huge pressures in the process of pursuing equal treatment from their family, friends, colleagues and the public.

The mentality of being a submissive housewife and bending to the men in their lives, including their husbands, comes from ancient China. Women should act like a woman, silent, diligent, soft and tolerant. Almost every country has experienced a period when women couldn’t work like a men. But, after all kinds of revolutions and movements, we thought that we have won finally. However, reality bites us again.

For example, when a woman in China tries to be a strong business woman, other than the barriers of boss and clients, her biggest hindrance is her family. Women are often helpless when they find out that the people around them are almost all antifeminists.

My father always told me that as a woman, you should do all of the housework for your husband after marriage. I feel disappointed that my father should ask me to act like a good wife and sacrifice myself to provide convenience to my future husband. What about myself? He also told me that the most important goal in a woman’s life is to marry a good person and provider. And he never encouraged me to be an independent person. Because in his world of values, a woman’s value exists in a house, not in the world.

Therefore, it is not difficult to explain why ‘virtue schools’ for women in China could exist in this modern age. If there are 100 feminists in China, there must be 1000 antifeminists. What, then, should women do to get back their inalienable rights?

We are born as women, but we are not born to be silent hidden and behind men. The voice of antifeminism may not disappear, but women can be stronger than they can imagine. The surroundings culture may mock a divorced woman, but this shouldn’t become the reason for her to bear patriarchal forces day by day. Parents may anticipate that their baby girl can become a housewife and supported by her future husband. But this is only their dream, not ours.

Antifeminism is everywhere. Since we can’t avoid it, we should face it with a smile, sticking to the belief that we are women and we should love ourselves and our capacity to create our own identify and future direction.